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This looks to me the equivalent of: "software engineer is a real engineering discipline" argument. Some practitioners of one field consider themselves to be equivalent to another related field because of similarities. Opponents cite some "key differences" and requirements to deny the claim. Fights ensue.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not really what's going on though. Semantically, it is a type of document that browsers to display in certain ways. A HTML isn't really programming your web browser any more than a .wav file is "programming your audio player". I suppose though, semantics are ultimately made up, and we can indeed choose to flip it such that documents are actually programs for platforms that are the document browsers
> A HTML isn't really programming your web browser any more than a .wav file is "programming your audio player". Also not any more than a .c file is "programming your compiler" nor a binary executable is "programming your operating system" nor an operating system is "programming your hardware" nor hardware is "programming mathematics". Disclaiming HTML as a programming language when it is actually powerful for progra…
I mean it's just about the traditional intent, and still oft-used understanding, that web browsers are viewers for hypertext documents. But sure, feel free to call GCC a "C browser" and .c files "c documents"
> Because HTML looks easy and lacks features like formal conditional logic and Turing-completeness, it’s often dismissed as not a programming language. Uh, yes? It's _not_ a programming language, it's a markup language. It's kind of in the name.
It's a declarative programming language. Saying it's "in the name" is a meme, it was named that before it supported scripting.
I will get flak for this but just too funny to not say it. This looks to me the equivalent of: "software engineer is a real engineering discipline" argument. Some practitioners of one field consider themselves to be equivalent to another related field because of similarities. Opponents cite some "key differences" and requirements to deny the claim. Fights ensue.
Another similarity is that in both cases there is an implied value judgement—both sides of both arguments see one side of the dividing line as being "better" somehow than the other side, and want to either be included or to defend the integrity of the "better" side.
> HTML is somehow simultaneously paper and the printing press for the electronic age. It’s both how we write and what we read. It’s the most democratic computer language and the most global. It’s the medium we use to connect with each other and publish to the world. It makes perfect sense that it was developed to serve as a library—an archive, a directory, a set of connections—for all digital knowledge. Ah yes, journ…
I know a lot of Haskell programmers who would take issue with the idea that programming requires a sequence of instructions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A HTML isn't really programming your web browser any more than a .wav file is "programming your audio player". Also not any more than a .c file is "programming your compiler" nor a binary executable is "programming your operating system" nor an operating system is "programming your hardware" nor hardware is "programming mathematics". Disclaiming HTML as a programming language when it is actually powerful for progra…
> Disclaiming HTML as a programming language when it is actually powerful for programming comes across to me as a No True Scotsman argument about "real" programming languages being used to program only in some contexts or to make only some things as the program. I mean it's just about the traditional intent, and still oft-used understanding, that web browsers are viewers for hypertext documents. But sure, feel free t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Disclaiming HTML as a programming language when it is actually powerful for programming comes across to me as a No True Scotsman argument about "real" programming languages being used to program only in some contexts or to make only some things as the program. I mean it's just about the traditional intent, and still oft-used understanding, that web browsers are viewers for hypertext documents. But sure, feel free t…
It's not about "calling GCC a C browser" but recognizing that a "document" and a "program" are not mutually exclusive. Is HTML as a static document really so different from cards with holes punched through them (literally paper documents)?
The article seems to simply assume that only programming languages have value, then argue that since HTML has value, that it is a programming language. EDIT: It's a very common logical confusion. Just because someone says "HTML is bad because it's not a programming language" but you think HTML is good doesn't mean that HTML is a programming language. The first person could just be wrong about there being a connection…
I would say that HTML is a programming language of the Declarative programming language paradigm. For SQL you are not instructing the computer what to do, you're describing the rules and structure of the result that you want in some coded language such that an execution engine can determine how to deliver the expected result. For HTML you're not instructing the renderer what to do, you're describing the rules and str…
Or as another HN person pointed out, the root issue is the author being unhappy that "not" being a programming language conveys negative attitude.
If we're looking for what to call HTML, why not just say markup language? It's a well known industry term.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a declarative programming language. Saying it's "in the name" is a meme, it was named that before it supported scripting.
And when it added scripting, it did so by adding an actual programming language.
This is just a HN personality test in disguise.